This Week in Volatility Indexes and ETPs – 8/22/2014

The four S&P 500 volatility indexes dropped last week as the stock market measure made new all-time highs. The VXST discount to VIX may be attributed to very little in the way of significant economic news coming in the next few days.

In the ETP space the long oriented funds that focus on the short dated futures were down between 4% and 8%, depending on the amount of leverage involved. This is not so bad when VIX drops over 12% on the week. Sometimes it is not such a bad thing that these funds are based on the futures and not the spot index.

Mid-morning on Friday there appeared to be one VXX option trader thinking we may get a volatility spike this coming week. Someone came in and sold just over 9,000 of the VXX Aug 29th 28 Puts at 0.89. VXX finished the day at 27.70 so the best case scenario for this put seller involves VXX rising at least 0.30 by next Friday.

Russell Rhoads, CFA, is Director of Education for the CBOE Options Institute. His career before CBOE included positions at a variety of firms including Highland Capital Management, Caldwell & Orkin Investment Counsel, Balyasny Asset Management, and Millennium Management. He is a financial author and editor having… read more

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